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Attorneys for jailed former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced Tuesday that the IRS will pay him $104 million as a whistleblower reward for information he turned over to the US government. |
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Attorneys for jailed former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced Tuesday that the IRS will pay him $104 million as a whistleblower reward for information he turned over to the US government. The information Birkenfeld revealed detailed the inner workings of the secretive private wealth management division of the Swiss bank UBS (UBS), where the American-born Birkenfeld helped his US clients evade taxes by hiding wealth overseas. At one point during his private banking career, Birkenfeld reportedly brought diamonds across the US border secured inside a toothpaste tube. Tuesday's announcement represents an astonishing turn of fortune for Birkenfeld, who was released from federal prison in August after serving 31 months on charges relating to his efforts to help a wealthy client avoid taxes. He is currently under home confinement in New Hampshire. The terms of his probation prevented Burkenfeld from attending the press conference announcing his windfall. Birkenfeld attorney Stephen Kohn said the information the former Swiss banker turned over to the IRS led directly to the $780 million fine paid to the US by his former employer, UBS, as well as leading over 35,000 taxpayers to participate in amnesty programs to voluntarily repatriate their illegal offshore accounts. Kohn said that resulted in the collection of over $5 billion dollars in back taxes, fines and penalties that otherwise would have remained outside the reach of the government. Birkenfeld's disclosures also led to the first cracks in the legendarily secretive Swiss banking system, and ultimately the Swiss government changed its tax treaty with the United States. UBS turned over the names of more than 4,900 US taxpayers who held illegal offshore accounts. Investigations into those accounts are ongoing. In an interview with CNBC conducted in federal prison in 2011, Birkenfeld emphasized the value he had as an insider: "I knew the other bankers. I knew the other banks. And I knew the headhunters," Birkenfeld said at the time. "So, I knew exactly who was doing this business." Under the IRS whistleblower program which was revamped in 2006, informants are entitled to a percentage of the dollars recovered by the US government when fraud is exposed. This decision is expected to send a message to other potential informants that there is money, potentially big money, in turning to the government. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
瑞士銀行前職員布拉德利?比肯菲爾德的律師本周二稱，美國國稅局將向他獎勵1.04億美元，以表彰其向美國政府舉報逃稅。 比肯菲爾德揭發的內幕信息詳細指出了瑞銀私密的私人財富管理部門的運作方式。出生于美國的比肯菲爾德在瑞銀工作期間，曾通過隱匿海外財富的方式，幫助他的美國客戶逃稅。 據報道，在比肯菲爾德從事私人銀行業務的職業生涯中，曾把鉆石藏在牙膏管里帶出美國國境。 本周二公布的這一消息讓比肯菲爾德發了一筆橫財。他在之前被控幫助富有的客戶逃稅，在聯邦監獄服刑31個月，今年八月剛剛出獄。 他目前還在新罕布什爾州處于家庭監禁階段。他的緩刑判罰條款使他無法出席宣布對他實施獎勵的新聞發布會。 比肯菲爾德的律師斯蒂芬-卡恩說，舉報的消息直接導致美國對瑞士銀行罰款7.8億美元，且超過3.5萬名納稅人參與了特赦計劃，自愿轉回了非法離岸賬戶。卡恩說，美國國稅局因此追回了50億美元的補繳稅款和罰款，否則這筆錢根本無法收回。 比肯菲爾德的舉報行為還導致具有傳奇色彩的秘密的瑞士銀行系統的首次曝光。最終，瑞士政府改變了和美國之間的稅務協議。瑞銀向美國政府提供了超過4900名持有非法離岸賬戶的美國公民的身份。對這些賬戶的調查仍在進行之中。 2011年，比肯菲爾德在獄中接受消費者新聞與商業頻道采訪時，強調指出了自己作為內幕人士的價值，“我了解其他的銀行從業者，了解其它銀行。我也了解獵頭。”他還說，“因此我清楚地知道誰在做這種生意。” 根據美國國稅局2006年修訂的舉報人計劃，在揭發欺騙行為后，舉報人將獲得美國政府追回款項的一定的百分比作為獎勵。 這一決定也會讓其他潛在的揭發者知道，向政府告發就有可能發財，而且是大賺一筆。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮） |
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Vocabulary: whistleblower: 告發者，檢舉者 home confinement: 家庭監禁，家居隔離 windfall: 意外之財 |
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